Evening is approaching in Daybreak Village, and the preparations are almost complete!

How do we know? "The preparations are almost complete!" This primly self-satisfied declaration rings out from one of the larger huts, before Mayor Professor Redmane's assistant, Glimmer, emerges from the building with head held high and labcoat trailing around herself. "All coefficience have been counted, all sums soundly summarized and every formula is firmly founded in factual…" She trails off, stops, and stares off into the distance, before whirling back to the building. "Bring forth the list! I have sudden doubts about the formulae!"

Emerging from the building behind the purple unicorn is a short figure, tottering about on broad feet and huddling under several layers of dull cloth; it resembles in many ways an ambulatory heap of potato sacks. Still, grubby, multi-fingered claws emerge from its sleeves, and in them it holds a stack of rolled parchment. The short creature dutifully totters up to Glimmer and offers her the stack.

Glimmer's horn lights up, and she narrows her eyes and squints through her reading glasses as she levitates a pair of scrolls up, unfurls them, and reviews them quickly. "Thank you, Bristle." She falls quiet as she reads, before smiling. "Ahh! The formulas are indeed fabulous." Both scrolls snap shut, and Glimmer drops to her haunches, lifting her forehooves and clapping them together, knock knock knock. "Now we just need to wait for our test subjects! They should be arriving from Horseshoe Harbor any moment now-!" Her attention turns towards the road leading into town from the Harbor; the dirty heap that is Bristle bumbles up to wait behind her, watching from the folds of its clothing.

Magpie sidles up behind the others and sits down next to Bristle, waiting patiently for those Harborite types to arrive.
This lasts all of twelve seconds before she starts poking at Bristle curiously.

Tattered-Tapestry follows behind Magpie, a peculiar pair of goggles on his head and a warding charm about his neck, his body laced with trap charms to bind and nullify any would-be magical mischief-makers.

Technically, Heart-Rhythm has been out in the Wintersong before. Three whole times. That doesn't make his fourth trip any less nerve-wracking, but he has learned that even for the end of summer, it's a cold place. The fact that the road between Daybreak and the Harbor is relatively well marked now only slightly helps his unease. As the village starts to come into view, he gives a little tug on his saddlebag and his scarf.

Bristle takes a moment to glance at Magpie, before looking back towards the path. Still holding the stack of scrolls, the creature doesn't seem to be especially concerned with the pony's presence… until the poking begins. At that, the diminutive, shabbily dressed thing sidles away, around Glimmer, to stand on the other side of her, where it hopes the poking will stop.

Glimmer glances about at this, notices Magpie, then Tattered Tapestry near her, and nods to herself, satisfied, before looking back to the road. After a beat, the unicorn hops to her hooves! "EEK!! Where'd you two come from?! Sneaking up on us like that! It's dangerous, you know! There's all sorts of terrible things lurking out in the woods, it's dangerous to just pop out of nowhere!" With an indignant huff and a tug that straightens the lapels of her labcoat, she whirls away. "At least ONE of your fellow harborites has the courtesy to use the road!" She waves to Heart Rhythm as he draws closer. "Come on, come on! The cookies are almost ready, don't dawdle!"

Glimmer turns towards the others and, once Heart is close enough to hear, begins. "Now, then, as you may recall, we're going to be making use of enchanted baked goods in an attempt to ascertain the whereabouts of that biscuit-filching fiend. All YOU three have to do is eat the enchanted goods, find yourselves whisked away when whatever sinister process our antagonist is employing would abduct the cookies, and then, once you find him or her…" She waves a hoof. "Address the issue. Simple enough, yes?"

Magpie raises a hoof.

Heart-Rhythm raises a hoof too.

"Path hidden well", comes a comment from the side and a little bit above. "Followed late, almost missed." Couple of glowy spots near the canopy fade to a more reasonable red as Feverfew lands near the procession, blinking repeatedly. "Or not. Still seeing things, apparently." She points at Bristle.

Magpie frowns sideways at Heart Rhythm and reaches over to push her hoof in front of the other, and try to force Heart's down.

Heart-Rhythm squirms to keep his hoof up. "Hey, knock it off!"

Tattered-Tapestry understands, having talked with the Professor prior to this date, on the day when this experiment was planned. "Hello Feverfew." He says, welcoming the batpony.

Glimmer narrows her eyes slightly as she looks back and forth between Heart Rhythm and Magpie. "Yes? What is it?" she asks, without making it clear which pony she's asking this of. A moment later, she jumps as Feverfew EMERGES FROM THE DARKNESS, and scowls as she makes a show of sitting up and smoothing her coat out once more. "Well! Nice of you to join us," she says, crisply. "Though I hope you know what we're doing, as I've already begun the introductory explanation!"

Under Feverfews attention, Bristle shuffles self-consciously, circling a grubby, booted toe about in the dirt in front of itself. Glimmer glances over. "Bristle, check the oven." The small creature hops and scurries back into the hut, eager to comply! Glimmer watches it go, then calls out. "AND DON'T EAT ANY YET!" A tiny 'Awww.' can be heard from inside.

Heart-Rhythm scowls at Magpie. "Go ahead, you first."

Magpie smiles at Heart. "Um, what do you mean by takin' care of it? You want we should stab the gingerbread steed?"

Heart-Rhythm shakes his head. "Related query. The plan is for us to get foalnapped? When did this get discussed?"

Magpie peers. " 'Query'?"

Tattered-Tapestry chuckles, peering a little closer at the peculiar form of Bristle before returning his attention to Glimmer. He was fully prepared for anything, with wards against all feasible methods of attacks and a few hidden tricks up his sleeve.

Feverfew is well equipped for an adventure. She has a pile-woven scarf big enough to double as a towel, a small bag of medical things, a pet moth, and a cute fangy smile. "Hello, ponies! Pony-friendly beings! Eh, explanations often superfluous. Fix villains, confound heroes. Wait, reverse. Joke. Yes." She keeps on eyeing Bristle curiously.

Glimmer squints at Magpie for a moment, then frowns and turns away. For a brief moment she looks unsure, and unsettled by this. Could it be there was a factor she failed to take into account? This mission was facing a high probability of succeess, but now…! But no! She can't doubt herself so near the precipice of brilliance, and whirls back towards Magpie, frowning defiantly. "Preferably not, but if you see that as a logical course of action, of course! Otherwise just apprehend him. You know…" She waves a hoof. "Take care of it. I'm sure you have your ways!"

To Heart Rhythm, next, she turns, and she shakes her head briskly. "Foalnapped? Hardly! We're simply cutting out all that messy business of tracking the scoundrel down and walking to his hideout." She waves a hoof dismissively towards the road. "It's merely efficient travel. Besides, there are four of you and it'll be a big surprise when you just show up! You have every advantage I could think of. This one with the bat wings…" She gestures to Feverfew. "Has the right idea!"

Bristle emerges from the hut a few moments later, trots up to Glimmer, and holds up one grubby paw, thumb up. "Ready!" it says in a gravely voice. Glimmer smiles. "Excellent! I hope you brought your appetites, ponies-!"

Tattered-Tapestry would eat it regardless, since it was FOR SCIENCE…..and also for the cookies. But he was ready. He stands ready to follow Glimmer.

Magpie picks up a couple rocks. Y'know. In case.

Heart-Rhythm looks anything but reassured by the series of explanations, and turns to Magpie. "A query is a question. More importantly… you seem to actually know who we're going after. Is this going to be…" He frowns, waves a hoof about, and squints in concentration for a moment. "Let me rephrase. How bucked are we?"

Feverfew smiles at Heart Rhythm reassuringly. Also fangily. "Me present? One-fifth higher than first estimate." She then hrms at Magpie. "Easy answer: maybe not pony. Maybe secretly like me." And then she is lured along with promises and scent of freshly baked cookies.

Magpie says "That's what I said."

Glimmer rolls her eyes as ponies continue to question the wisdom of her plan. Don't they understand how exact her math was?! Those decimals are SO ACCURATELY PLACED. "The plan is fool-proof and incapable of error!" she says, before looking to Heart Rhythm. Her frustrated demeanor softens, then, and she sighs. "Look, I know it's a frightening prospect, but I wouldn't send you all into something I wasn't sure you could handle. And I've never met this fiend, but so far he seems more interested in running than fighting. And at the very least you can interfere with his operation." She waves a hoof. "If he's using some kind of device, capture it! And if you really can't help it… just… just look for something fragile and break it. Now come along! We can't delay. The cookies will vanish before we have a chance to enact the enchantment!" She turns away, ignores any further concernsfor now, and makes for the doorway to the hut.

Bristle follows after, then hastens ahead, soon scooping a pair of oven mitts onto its paws and making for a large, domed, clay oven on one side of the room. The rest is filled with tables and shelves- sturdy, if not especially charismatic furniture cobbled together from local wood and, in some cases, looking like it was salvaged from a yard sale in Horseshoe Harbor. There's a wealth of junk cluttering the shelves and tables; books, papers stacked and rolled, vials of liquid and snaking arrangements of chemistry glassware. But the table in the center is cleared… and for good reason, as Bristle is withdrawing from the hoven a tray of what appear to be scientifically superior chocolate-chip cookies. The smell is everything one could hope for from baked goods, and their chocolate chips glisten in the glow of the brick oven, having been caught at the perfect point of edible gooey goodness.

Glimmer's face lights up like a madwoman's at the sight of them. "Yes… yes! They're MARVELOUS!"

Tattered-Tapestry says "Stupidly fast isnt very good when you cant see where you are going." He presents a pure black medallion for all to see. "One of my more mundane tricks, just a simple enchantment to enduce temporary blindness to any assailant."

Magpie oohs! She jumps up and levitates two cookies off the tray, aiming them for her mouth!

Feverfew pipes up, "They LIVE! Mua-ha-HA!" She eyes the oven. "More lightning or red glow, yes." She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath of scientifically superior scent, and then takes a single cookie to munch on.

Tattered-Tapestry takes a cookie, looking at it inquisitively with his enchanted goggles. "These things are practically ooozing magic…. Are you sure there wont be any side effects?" He says, warily taking a bite of the cookie.

The smell of cookies is indeed a tempting distraction, but Heart-Rhythm gets distracted by the other scientific 'junk' as well. In fact, if he'd been undistracted, he most assuredly would have been looking at what he was grabbing in his telekinetic field, and not placed that delicious cookie in his mouth. You can tell this because his eyes widen as the chocolate hits his tongue, followed by a disgruntled, rather than a satisfied, groan.

Glimmer smiles, the very picture of scientific self-satisfaction, as everybody samples the cookies. "The only magic in them, my dear Mr. Tapestry, is skillful, scientifically superior baking skills." She watches the others for a few moments, before frowning. "Wait! I forgot to enchant them! Hold on- bristle, bring the scroll-!"

Bristle hops, scurries over to a workbench, digs through a pile of paper, and holds up what appears to be one of countless rolled parchments. This is unfurled and held up just in time for Glimmer- narrowing her eyes, hunching her shoulders and presenting her horn in the universal body language of Intensely Concentrating Unicorns- starts gathering magical energy about her horn. The glow builds, flaring a bright fuschia, intensifying as she silently reads words off the presented scroll. As she finishes, she squeezes her eyes shut, and jerks her head forward, and- flash! A ray of light envelopes the remaining cookies! They glow a brilliant purple for several long moments until the spell sputters out. The light fades, leaving a faint sparkle, like the subtle shine of sugar crystals dusting each one.

A panting Glimmer eyes the cookies, then nods with satisfaction. "There," she says. "That's the tracking enchantment. Now, then! All of you! Hurry and eat them! Make sure you get at least two in your stomach- three for you adults- so there's enough magic to-"

Magpie augh. She sneezes twice, then peers at herself. "…I'm all sparkly," she mutters, dusting at her chest. Cookie dust and sparkles….

"I didn't do it," Heart-Rhythm insists, seemingly on instinct. Then he gives a little awkward giggle. "I mean, of course I didn't…. nevermind." He raises a slightly glittery hoof to his face. "What was the enchantment supposed to be?"

Tattered-Tapestry had managed to eat a few, and then instinctivly shields his eyes before remembering his goggles. "So… What happens now?"

Feverfew eyes the enchanted cookies worriedly. "Sure glow ri… agh!" She swiftly shields both her eyes and her moth with a wing and looks at the delicious fragments with a grin. "Glad full enchantment uneaten." She leans down to nibble on a few chocolatey crumbs glommed on the side of a bookcase.

Glimmer slowly recovers, at first blinking, flopping her lips, then turning about. "They- they blew- what?" She looks to Bristle, who merely shrugs. Glimmer looks down at the scattered crumbs, eyes wide; they soon start to well up with tears she rapidly blinks back, stoically hiding her distress behind a frown. "Okay, this is- this isn't bad! We can still make this work! If we get a sizable enough sample of the remains, we can… all of you, look about the cabin! We need some big crumbs. You there, you've got small hooves!" She points at Magpie. "Check behind some of the furniture! And you!" She points at Tatters next. "You know a bit about magic! Try and find the most enchanted chunks! Bring them here to the table! Hurry, before- before-" She throws her hooves up. "I don't know! Before something else that's bad happens!"

Magpie trots over. Pauses in front of Glimmer. Throws her hooves around the mare in a big hug.

Tattered-Tapestry has a solution! He pulls out a small white pouch, a rune in the shape of wind blowing (or rather, being sucked in) ringing the drawn entrance. "Here! I have the crumbs! All of them!" He says, opening the bag. Suddently a magical wind began to blow through the room, the crumbs being drawn into the bag. He'd already introduced a crumb in the hopes that it would help and now it was attracting other crumbs in a radius around the bag.

Feverfew licks some chocolatey smears off her wing, then points a wingtip at Hawthorn. "Explosions? Often mean right path! Or interesting path. With /applications/." And as Tattered Tapestry does his vacuum cleaner trick, she stands facing the wind with her mouth open. More crumbs!

Heart-Rhythm squints, and starts levitating the crumbs off of his own fur, setting them in a neat little pile in front of him. Until they suddenly get sucked away in a miniature tornado towards Tattered-Tapestry's bag. "Hmm. That's easier," he mutters.

Glimmer is caught off guard by the hug- freezing in place mid-bossiness, looking down at Magpie. "That's not what I asked you to do," she says, sheepishly, uncomfortable and at a loss for words. That's about when Tatters starts conjuring MAGICAL WIND- and at first, Glimmer is about to protest- there's so many delicate experiments and carefully organized heaps of paper that risk being disturbed!- but hushes up when it seems to affect the crumbs only. "Well, THAT'S certainly ingenious! Well done."

Extricating herself from Magpie's grasp- or dragging the filly along with if she cannot- Glimmer approaches the table, the heaped up crumbs, and reaches out to start sifting through them. "Too small, too small… good… not chocolatey enough… good, good…" Slowly, she's managing to fish larger chunks out of the pile. "Right, this should do. Okay, change in plans, everypony! Gather around."

Magpie scoots over to the table. "Yeh?" she asks, staying a step back just in case of secondary cakesplosions.

Heart-Rhythm warrily approaches the table. "What is the plan?"

Feverfew, having had her fill of cookie crumbs, joins everypone else as she hovers above the table cautiously.

Tattered-Tapestry walks over to the table, running his hoof along a rune that looked like a zipper. The bag opened to drop a ball of compacted crumbs, a quite interesting treat should one eat it. Magically zipping the bag u, he stows it and awaits further orders.

Glimmer continues to sift through the gathered cookie remnants, then glances up at the others. "I'm detecting a lingering magical presence in the crumbs, although the spell appears to have been… altered.. by the…" Her eyes narrow slightly. "Occurrence." She frowns, and looks down at the table. "As such, there's not telling what exactly will happen! The only recourse is to sample the most potent samples and see what effects they have." She sits up and puffs her chest out, chin held high. "Experimentation is our key to success!"

Magpie says "Eat the unknown cookie spell?"

Magpie says "… yeah okay."

Glimmer nods briskly. "Exactly! What could go wrong?"

Feverfew looks about shiftily. A moment's concentration and her eyes get all glowy again. She clears her throat as she breaks off a (hopefully potent) piece from the crumb-ball. Which is followed by a too-loud proclamation. "Yeah! Pefectly safe!" And then she pops it into her mouth.

Magpie nibbles on some too.

Heart-Rhythm squints at Glimmer. Then sighs, and noms. He's learned something very important. Being the experimental _subject_ is nowhere near as fun as being the experimentER.

Tattered-Tapestry nods, taking a chunk from the cookieball and popping it into his mouth.

Glimmer hushes as Feverfew takes the plunge, turning to watch her with bated breath! Bristle, likewise, peeks up over the edge of the table beside her, yellow eyes gleaming faintly amidst the shadows cast by its shabby attire.

The crumb tastes like sweet cookie with a bit of chocolate chip- still fresh, t hough maybe not as perfectly fresh as it was after emerging from the oven. It also tingles on the tongue. Tingles… like magic. Magic that flows down Feverfew's throat, sits in her stomach, and then fades.

A moment later, water starts to dribble out of the batpony's ears like they were a pair of faucets. Glimmer blinks. "Oh! That's not- that's not right."

Likewise, the crumbs all seem to taste fine for EVERYPONY, but after a few moments…

Heart Rhythm disappears abruptly. He is now on the roof, and his tongue tastes like cherry.

And Tattered Tapestry suddenly has the irresistable urge to belch. Loudly. The pressure is intense! His chest feels as though it may explode if he doesn't let it off soon!

Feverfew aughs! She shakes her head. Then tries plugging her ears with her hooves, but quickly gives up as water keeps dripping. Her moth finds this a good occasion to get a drink. She quickly moves to hover over Glimmer, placed just so the dripping gets the lab coat and mane below all wet. "Blaming you, yes."

As all of this occurs, Glimmer starts to fret, then panic. "All of you, stop that at once! That's not what's supposed to happen! Oh, blast! Bristle, go get a ladder-! No, a mop! Ack-!" She scrambles away from Feverfew, trying to stay away from the eardrizzle! "Quit that! Here, hold still, I-" Acting rather than thinking, she zaps Feverfew with a shot of fuschia magic! For a brief moment it's hot, like being out in direct sunlight, but the water from the ears stops. Clearly the best way to inspire action is to make her worry about the cleanliness of her labcoat!

Heart-Rhythm clings to the roof, doing his best to adjust his weight to not slide down off the roof. "How do I get down from here? Anypony?" he asks.

Tattered-Tapestry quickly steps away from the others, trying to find his way to a door or window or SOMETHING. He wasnt prepared for this! Then he gets the most brilliant idea! He opens the vaccumn bag as wide as he could and stuck his muzzle into it. With a muted rumbling, the bag swells rapidly….. and then Tatters passes out from lack of breath.

Glimmer scoots around to behind Feverfew and starts urging her towards the door. "You've got wings! Go get him down! And you-!" She bumps Bristle with a hoof. "Make sure Mr. Tapestry is okay!"

Bristle nods briskly, lopes over to Tattered Tapestry, and starts poking him with an oven mitt. "Hey," he or she croaks.

Feverfew whews as her ears are fixed. She flits down, passing by Tattered Tapestry on the way. After a moment's thought, she pulls the magical bag off his muzzle and places it on his tail instead. And then out she goes, rising up to where Heart Rhythm is. "Hi! Great view here. Want company?"

Heart-Rhythm stares at Feverfew, and looks at alternating hooves. "Carried in flight. Stranded on the roof. Carried in flight. Stranded on the roof." He sighs, and closes his eyes tightly. "Carry me down please."

Magpie WAAAAAAAs and goes WHAM on the floor. She flails, then stares at her hooves. "Honk! Honk!" she says sharply. Then slams her mouth shut in horror.

Bristle jumps at the honking, whirling to face Magpie! The creature stares for a few moments before looking to Glimmer.

Glimmer, at the doorway while she watches Feverfew, turns to look back at Magpie. "Was that you?" She stares, then sighs. "Okay, I can fix this! Honk once if I should or twice if it can wait." She looks back outside the doorway and up, biting her lower lip. "I want to make sure nobody falls and gets hurt!"

Magpie says "HONK!"

Magpie waves her wheely-feet furiously.

Feverfew scoops the colt up under his forelegs and has her moth, Dusty, carry the tail. She lowers him near the hovel's door. "Ccookie thief unseen yet." As she steps in, she rests a hoof on Magpie's back and rolls the filly back and forth. "Fun!"

Tattered-Tapestry comes to after the bag is removed. He pulls it off of his tail, looking at it. "Huh. It seems to have altered the bag…. Now it only will attract unpleasant smells. Which is both interesting and….. unexpected…."

Glimmer frets for a few moments, before ducking back in. "Very well!" As before, she concentrates, screws up her face in a scrunch, and ZAP! After a moment of sun-baked hotness, a POP and the wheezing sound of a deflating tire trailing into silence, Magpie is restored and unwheeled and honk-free.

Glimmer takes a moment to observe the corrections have taken, before looking to Tatters. "Is that so? Fascinating! Patent it and market it." She glances to Feverfew as she returns with Heart, then sighs, shaking her head. "I do apologize for that fuss, ponies, but no lasting harm done, yes? Right!" Returning to the table, she looks at the remaining chunks, and sifts through them with her hoof.

"We've five remaining pieces with significant dweomers remaining," she observes, before glancing up. "There's enough of the expected spell residue here that I'm confident one of them will do what we want… but I don't have the means to isolate them. Who's willing to keep trying until we find the right one?"

"That was…. actually kind of fun! I'm doing it again!" Tatters says, bouncing up and down like a foal. He takes another chunk and pops it into his mouth.

Heart-Rhythm doesn't open his eyes until his flank touches dirt. Then he gives a small happy sigh. "Thank you," he says, opening his eyes. He gives his glasses a small adjustment, and gives Glimmer a death glare. "Experimentation is our key to success," he says, in the most mocking tone possible, folding his hooves.

Little does she know, for there's little outside indication, but for Tattered Tapestry, everything around him appears to be glowing with vibrant colors! Bubbles of neon tones manifest in the air and pop with rainbow sparkles. The walls tremble; the floor seems to vibrate, though it doesn't feel any different under hoof. The entire world has become a psychedelic landscape of color and texture.

Not so subtle are the effects that ensorcel Feverfew! With a flash, her dusky coloration is replaced with bright, glistening, polished steel. She suddenly appears to be an animate statue crafted of living metal! … albeit one that the floorboards groan in protest underneath. Glimmer jumps at the sudden change, while Bristle pops up beside the metal batpony- reaching up and *knock knock knock*ing on her leg. It rings with a metallic ring. "Shiny," growls the creature, reaching up with covetous hands towards Feverfew's hoof.

Magpie peers at Feverfew. "….oooon the other hand maybe I'll just, uh…" She scoots back from the table a bit.

Feverfew gives Bristle a look. "Not collectible, nor edible cheaply", she tells the minion. She steps very carefully, making her way to a shelf of glassware, and flapping her wings to try flying too. She uses a flask with something dark and opaque in it as a mirror. "Hm. Hmm." Eye glow picks up a bit. "Come with me if want to live", she tells her reflection.

Bristle "awwww"s and lowers their hands.

Glimmer, meanwhile, pops up behind Magpie, and leans in. "You DO want to find the missing cookies, yes?" she asks, before smiling sweetly.

Tattered-Tapestry blinks, taking off his goggles, completely enraptured with this new perspective. The only outside indication of his condition was both the look of awe on his face and that his eyes were rapidly shifting through the spectrum of colors and then new colors.

Magpie peeks at Fever. "W-well…" She levitates a cookie-wad towards herself. "Yeah…" She peers at it. Then shoves it in Heart Rhythm's mouth.

Heart-Rhythm stares at Feverfew. "Now that's just wrong." Then he turns to Glimmer. He's just about to tell her off, insisting that Magpie isn't half as dumb as she's rumored to be. But as he opens his mouth to actually put his proverbial hoof in it, it's filled with a crumb. Which he swallows before even thinking. "You…."

Poof! Before he can finish the sentence, Heart Rhythm is suddenly wearing a grass skirt and coconut bra. There's sand under his hooves and a confused seagull on his head, which looks around before flying out the door.

Glimmer stares, then sits back and puts her hooves on her hips. "Yes?" she asks, frowning down her nose at Heart Rhythm. And trying not to laugh.

A few moments later, the colors that the hallucinating Tattered Tapestry is seeing start to fade. Seems the magic is limited even if Glimmer doesn't counter it. Likewise, Feverfew becomes aware of a zipper on her chest; tugging it reveals her normal grey coat underneath.

Magpie just rolls on her back and laughs and laughs, kicking her hooves!

Feverfew pulls the zipper down, looking a little disappointed. "Crazy-chaos. Not mathy-chaos. More fun, personable. Less predictable." She packs the costume into something like a small shiny bedroll. "Choices narrowing! Say experimenter pony try too. Never got name."

Heart-Rhythm takes a shuddering angry breath. He's not even sure which pony he's more angry with at this point. His horn glows, and his hula skirt splits, each grass bit going in a different direction. His coconut bra doesn't quite manage the same feat, however, as the elastic holding it together, resisting the pull for a while until it finally snaps, shooting through the sky suddenly at a ridiculous speed. He takes another angry breath, snorting. "Yes. Yes, I agree! I think you should try a piece yourself." He picks one up and maneouvers it towards Glimmer's face.

The steel costume, Feverfew will find, has become little more than shiny spandex now that it has been removed. Any metallic nature is purely cosmetic- she can dress up in a shiny bodysuit, it seems, but any superhero strength or durability has faded. The surprises will continue when in two days the entire garment turns into lettuce.

Two crumbs remain on the table. Bristle hauls up beside it and starts poking at them. "Almost done," the creature growls over to the others.

Glimmer glances to her assistant, then over to Feverfew. Her ears slick back. "Me? Try one? I don't know- if- if something goes catastrophically wrong, who else could fix things?!" She paces about in place for a few moments, before looking back to the others. Heart Rhythm's fury only emphasizes the point; she frowns at the offered crumb, then furrows her brow, reaches up, snatches it from his grasp, and sullenly stuffs it in her mouth. She chews and swallows.

Magpie sits up to see what happens.

Tattered-Tapestry sits rapt, interested in seeing what will happen

Feverfew is unlikely to be upset that the costume becomes useless. The fact that it's lettuce is more upsetting. Couldn't it be something nicer, like arugula? And she also sits and looks intently at Glimmer. "Can fix! Eventually. Maybe."

"If you feel like it," Heart-Rhythm insists to Feverfew. "Only if you feel like it." He looks expectantly at Glimmer.

Nothing happens.

A tense moment of waiting becomes confusion, then gradually dawning relief, as Glimmer releases a breath she didn't realize she was holding.

"There," she says. "Nothing. Well! That went far better than expecteBLEAUGH"

The unicorn starts barfing rainbows in a constant colorful torrent. They dissipate harmlessly as they hit the floor, but she seems unable to stop for a good twenty seconds of rainbow heaving, after which she's left panting and coughing up little sparkly pink clouds. Her cheeks are flushed with embarassment.

Feverfew applauds vigorously. "Exciting! Last crumb, right crumb now." She digs in her small medical bag and pulls out an eye-wateringly strong mint, pushing it across a table to Glimmer. "Make easier."

Magpie rolls around and giggles! "Taste the rainbow!" she laughs. "How did it taste?!"

Tattered-Tapestry facehoofs. Unicorn vomiting rainbows….

Glimmer groans and braces a hoof on the edge of the table. "Like a mathematical error…" she says to Magpie. The mare winces as the last crumb is pushed her way. "Are you absolutely certain? That's guaranteed to be the correct one, by process of elimination! You're sure you want ME to eat it, even if this has the answers we're looking for?"

Heart-Rhythm smirks. "And that's why you don't integrate chaos by baking. Now, may I make a serious point? I'm not sure what kind of grad student you are, but even if that last crumb is the right spell, which I'd be shocked at if it were, only one of us would be sent.. or whatever. Your plan called for four of us to overwhelm our thief."

Magpie says "You DO have the best magic in the room, y'know."

Tattered-Tapestry has an idea, and all the lingering magic actually conjures a light bulb above his head, spookily lit and hanging there. "How about we use magic to replicate this one hunk exactly!" he says, digging through his magic bag of botto!wonders.

Feverfew eyes everypony around. "Tentative plan: all go." She then starts moving about, being quite unceremonious. Magpie goes on her back. Tattered Tapestry under one wing, Heart Rhythm after another. She throws her forehooves in a tight hug about Glimmer. And then Dusty drops the last crumb into her waiting mouth.

Glimmer looks past the crumb and at Heart Rhythm, frowning again. She's good at that… and Heart Rhythm is good at making her frown. "Very well! If you'll be patient, and if this is really the only way, I can replicate the lingering dweomer in such a form that we can ALL sample it. If it will in fact still function as intended and take us to the location that all the other cookies are being drawn, then we'll go together! Will that suffice?" She looks to Tatters. "It seems Mr. Tapestry here is of similar mind!"

It's just as Glimmer is finishing this proposal that Feverfew makes with bundling everybody up and taking the plunge! A now-familiar tingle of magic sits in the bottom of Feverfew's stomach… before the batpony is suddenly overcome with VISIONS.

Her consciousness is torn up and out of the room, above the house, the village, the forest, and is whisked across, pulled by an ethereal string! Trees and clouds and snow and ice breeze past on all sides, until bark gives way to cookie dough, gathered snow is replaced with sugar frosting! A grove of candy trees surrounds her awareness, and in the center of that, a gingerbread house! The house positively gleams with magical potential. Surely this is where all the cookies are being drawn to!

All everybody else sees, however, is Feverfew's eyes lighting up, as if glowing from within. The batpony is paralyzed for a few seconds before awareness and autonomy returns to her. And when it does, she's left with a persistent, throbbing awareness of the location of the gingerbread house- always nagging at the back of her thoughts, seeming to creep in the corner of her vision.

Glimmer, aware of none of this save for the creepy glowing eyes, watches, her own eyes wide. "What happened?!" she asks, too worried and fascinated to even realize she's uncomfortably close to SO MANY PEOPLE right now. Even Bristle is watching, yellow eyes wide within the layers that cowl the creature's face.

Tattered-Tapestry had been cowering under Feverfew's wing, hoping nothimg bad was going to happen…. Nothing happened. "Well, that was anticlimatic to say the least…."

Heart-Rhythm snorts, and wiggles out from under Fevers wing. "To be expected, really," he says, assuming nothing has, in fact, happened, given the absense of evidence.

Magpie shrugs. "Oh well…"

When the eye-glow fades, the batpony stays unresponsive for a short but uncomfortable while more. "Cookie thief very inconsiderate", she finally says. "Got bearing, images, startling dizzying way. Few moments, making tea. Map pending." And then she's back to a standing ragdoll.

Glimmer continues to stare at Feverfew for a few moments, then slowly starts to pull back from the others, out of any range of physical contact. "Bearing? Images…?" She turns her head slightly. "You saw something? What was it?" The unicorn turns away. "Bristle! Do we have any tea?" The short creature nods, and scuttles off towards the other side of the one-room house/lab. Glimmer looks back to Feverfew. "Do you need to sit down? … do you feel the need to, you know… do you need a bucket? If you taste rainbows you need a bucket."

Tattered-Tapestry hmms, producing a roll of tough fabric and a enchanted quill, one that wouldnt need to be inked. "Use this instead."

Heart-Rhythm stares off in the direction pointed, but quickly realizes he's disoriented to direction, since Daybreak is relatively unfamiliar to him. He gives a shrug, and starts picking at the unused cookie crumbs, starting to arrange them into a couple neat piles.

Glimmer is obviously quite confused by Feverfew's scattered conversation, but blinks. "Paper! Right, we have paper…"

She turns away and starts hunting for paper- but by the time she finds some, Tatters has already provided. The unicorn sets the parchment aside. Bristle arrives a moment later with a steaming kettle and starts pouring tea for everybody.

Tattered-Tapestry accepts the tea, dropping some powder from his bag into his tea. "Just a pick-me-up." he says, sipping the tea, his mind clearing and sharpening.

Magpie says "Soooo there's nopony to beat up today."

Glimmer listens intently, though at the comment on having already had tea, she exchanges a look with Bristle. The unicorn shrugs it off before looking back to Feverfew. "So you think you know where to go? A candy forest…?" She reaches up and scratches her head. "I'll have to consult with our scouts- I don't think they've EVER seen anything like that! But if you know where to go…" She sighs. "I guess we have a place to look, now. All that's left is to gather some volunteers and head there."

The purple unicorn considers for a few moments, tapping her chin thoughtfully, then glances up at Magpie. "Hmm? Oh, no- no violence today, it looks like." Unless they all decide they want revenge for Glimmer's magical mishaps, perhaps, but the professor's assistant hopes it won't come to that. She DID provide tea and cookies, after all, that has to count for something.

Magpie sighs. "Awright, well…. later, then…"

Tattered-Tapestry is mulling over the events of today, the fabric that Feverfew was drawing on made specifica

Heart-Rhythm finishes his arrangement of cookie crumbs, and takes an idle sip of tea, wincing afterwards from the bitterness. "I hope you have a magically hazardous object disposal system around here? Otherwise we'll need to find some dragonflies to eat these."

Glimmer nods, taking notes in her head. "Very strange. And concerning." She looks down, wrinkling up her nose with distaste at the very idea of her own inaccuracy. "Probably a good thing you all didn't get sent there anyway." She sighs and draws back. "We'll have to head there, prepared. Now that you know the location, though, we have the luxury of preparing for the trip instead of wondering where we even need to go!" The mare shakes her head, then lifts it, setting her shoulders. "I guess this means the project was a success! After a… after a fashion. Thank you all for your help."

Tattered-Tapestry nods, gathering his things and heading out. As he walks past Glimmer he pushes a small pouch into her hooves. "Stick this in your tea next time you feel overwhelmed. It will help you focus." he says, before pulling up his hood, slipping on his goggles, amd heading out.

Glimmer glances at the pouch with surprise. "Oh! Uh… thank you!" She lifts a hoof to wave to Tatters as he goes, then turns and passes the pouch off to Bristle. "Analyze that! Strange daywalker materials to be sure."